A blog to help you optimize your full-body and life performance

As women in the sports and fitness world, sometimes it can feel like we have something to prove — that we can train, grow, and recover with the rest of 'em. But our female physiology isn't a weakness, and it certainly doesn't have to impede our training goals. Just like anything in the natural world, our bodies and hormones go through cycles, which can be monitored and adjusted to accordingly.

While we recognize that every woman is different when it comes to her cycle, we can use science to better guide our training choices. Let's take a closer look at how we can work with our bodies instead of against them in the gym.

We're often asked if hormonal contraceptives can affect female biomarkers. The answer? Yes. It makes sense then, that women begin to wonder how they are affected, and to what extent.

Like any other medication, hormonal contraceptives (pills, patches, rings, IUDs, implants, and injections) interfere with the normal functioning of the body. Naturally, there can be some unintended residual effects. Therefore, some out-of-range biomarkers may be attributed to your contraceptive use, while others may be a combination of factors. It's important to note that throughout this blog post, we will refer to all hormonal contraceptives(pills, patches, rings, IUDs, implants, and injections), as OC – aka oral contraceptives. This may seem a misnomer, but in the current scientific literature, "OC" is used to characterize all hormonal contraceptives, unless indicated otherwise. We hope this post will help you better understand how your OC could be affecting some of your biomarker levels.

DHEAS is part of InsideTracker’s new Female InnerAge, a set of biomarkers that are particularly important in women’s health and physiology. DHEAS is an abundant molecule in the body that decreases naturally as women age. While it garners limited attention in health-related media, becoming informed about your own DHEAS levels using InsideTracker may help you optimize your muscle and bone health, sexual function, fitness performance, and longevity.

Sex Hormone Binding Globulin, also known as SHBG, is an awesome little glycoprotein that most of us have never heard of. Since SHBH is related to testosterone and other sex hormones, many women remain in the dark about their SHBG status. But SHBG is an important biomarker for women to pay attention to! Read more to find out why.